Amazing Ourselves to Death Chapters 1-4

Neil Postman believed that if unchecked man's relentless strive for entertainment as it pertains to media technology would also be man's inevitable downfall. Sounds grim, I know. As stated before in some of my previous posts, media technology is ever evolving and with each new technological advancement man becomes more and more fascinated and dependent towards media technology. Today, media technology has entered what I like to call the social media age. At least in America, everything we do in our daily lives, both professional and personal takes place on social media. In some cases, our activity on social media has become somewhat of a chore. One of the major ideas that stuck out to me the most, is the notion that media technology as it pertains to writing creates a numbness to the way we communicate. Focusing on writing as impersonal, communication is more than half nonverbal, and although we put our emotions and intentions into written form, those feelings and intentions are never fully realized (translated and received). This reminds me of Walter Ong, who believed that writing, literacy in general had negative effects on the human mind. Perhaps, he's write. Gathering from firsthand experience, media technology, has become second nature to the younger generation, including my own. Understanding this, I believe that we are inadvertently loosing touch with other forms to other forms of communication by engaging in media technology, very much in the same way argued orality over literacy. Strate says that there should be a balance between our usage of media technology and other forms of communication. I believe this to be true.